What's new

TForce | about tired of the teamsters

I posted , as a ex-employee of Onite , on another thread asking about what it was like at UPS freight. Got one response. So this thread seems to be questioning Union vs not and I'll ask a specfiic question. . After certification and a contract did not the wages go up ( considerable as I understand ) ,was there a reduction in contract haulers and putting it back on company folks, did benefits not improve ?
 
We are the highest paid across the country, and our medical cost are frozen until 2013. Seniority finally means something.
 
Great change in the wages - come along way from my memory. Seniority use to mean something but then I saw it applied different at different locations. So I will assume more structured and uniformly done throughout the company ? Any idea of what the O.R. is for UPSF ?
 
There has been an increase in contractors, we now have to load conway trailers on lanes where our drivers are sitting at home, we can now be fired for not having our searbelts on while we are hooking up, the diads have assisted gps on them and track speed and direction every 10 seconds, supervisors will call your cellphone and if you answer they ask you why are you talking on the phone, supervisors are told to write up a certian percentage of employees or the supervisor gets written up.
 
old overniter said:
Great change in the wages - come along way from my memory. Seniority use to mean something but then I saw it applied different at different locations. So I will assume more structured and uniformly done throughout the company ? Any idea of what the O.R. is for UPSF ?
Click to expand...

I know they are making a profit...
 
Overnite said:
There has been an increase in contractors, we now have to load conway trailers on lanes where our drivers are sitting at home, we can now be fired for not having our searbelts on while we are hooking up, the diads have assisted gps on them and track speed and direction every 10 seconds, supervisors will call your cellphone and if you answer they ask you why are you talking on the phone, supervisors are told to write up a certian percentage of employees or the supervisor gets written up.
Click to expand...

You should have your seat belt on. The onl person who should be concerned with GPS is a time thief. And If you are going to answer your cell phone while driving, check the ID first. Grow up!
 
Teamster said:
You should have your seat belt on. The onl person who should be concerned with GPS is a time thief. And If you are going to answer your cell phone while driving, check the ID first. Grow up!
Click to expand...

If these are new policies they have to notify the union and let them address each issue . these are called unilateral changes in the workplace and they affect existing working conditions.keep up the good fight.
 
First, let me say my intent is not to start further discord but I guess I am as opinionated as the rest. One of the previous posts said that UPSF was loading CONWAY trlrs. I assume on backhaul lanes. I can understand doing this IF there is nothing coming back or round the system that a driver can be utilized on. Why stick him out in no mans land with down time etc. What really shocked me was why CONWAY- and I have nothing against CONWAY- was the carrier of choice. I find that kind of offensive. The only reason I say that is because they are a direct competitor and it enhances their market share and possible profit picture. Gee, at least find a non- competitor to handle the business ! I don't know if anyone will understand the corolation with this remark but the Teamsters will not accept any delivery at their office unless it is by a UNION carrier and that includes mail and small packages. I can also remember Onite making deliveries to a major Tractor producer and being told you had better deliver using our power equipment as your horse. Don't pull up to Philip Morris with a Lorillard billboard on you trailer either to pickup a T/L. (Anyone remember that ?) Please , I am NOT ANTI UNION , maybe just a reasonable voice. . Comments have been made about good contracts and poor contracts frankly no one can predict every situation but common sense goes a long way. I think my question about what it is like at UPSF is being answered by you folks. I thank you for that , honestly !
 
strong,committed and dedicated teamsters are the best weapon against ups. I realize our brothers at upsf have many concerns but remain strong and unified.ups wants to divide the union members and have them fight among themselves.Dont give it to them.Remember, knowledge is power.Inform your steward and Ba of everything and address everything if necessary.It takes hard work to make this work and you guys can do this ,it takes time.good luck
 
old overniter said:
First, let me say my intent is not to start further discord but I guess I am as opinionated as the rest. One of the previous posts said that UPSF was loading CONWAY trlrs. I assume on backhaul lanes. I can understand doing this IF there is nothing coming back or round the system that a driver can be utilized on. Why stick him out in no mans land with down time etc. What really shocked me was why CONWAY- and I have nothing against CONWAY- was the carrier of choice. I find that kind of offensive. The only reason I say that is because they are a direct competitor and it enhances their market share and possible profit picture. Gee, at least find a non- competitor to handle the business ! I don't know if anyone will understand the corolation with this remark but the Teamsters will not accept any delivery at their office unless it is by a UNION carrier and that includes mail and small packages. I can also remember Onite making deliveries to a major Tractor producer and being told you had better deliver using our power equipment as your horse. Don't pull up to Philip Morris with a Lorillard billboard on you trailer either to pickup a T/L. (Anyone remember that ?) Please , I am NOT ANTI UNION , maybe just a reasonable voice. . Comments have been made about good contracts and poor contracts frankly no one can predict every situation but common sense goes a long way. I think my question about what it is like at UPSF is being answered by you folks. I thank you for that , honestly !
Click to expand...
I was having a conversation this past weekend with a 23 yr old, and in the middle of the conversation he said, "I'd respect you more if you were a Union driver." I told him I was a Teamster driver and all of a sudden his whole attitude changed. He was not a truck driver....just a young man that knows the Union means something! P.s. .... I tutored him for a while!
 
I probably was not very clear with my last post. My concern was more with the UPS person/engineer/linehaul contract negotiator who setup a system that utilized CONWAY. Frankly, I think that was stupid from even a image issue, morale issue and simple good business. As I have stated before not EVERY issue is a issue that should be decided by the bottomline which I will assume is why CONWAY has the move to begin with. I mentioned that I was NOT ANTI UNION for a reason. It appears that even if there is a hint of that being the case then it becomes " Open season ". Onite became Union for a reason and that reason is the Company brought it on themselves with their actions.
 
Overnite did not become union, overnite was sold to UPS then 2 or 3 years after we voted the union in, ups freight is a totally different company than overnite was.

Never would i have wanted a union while working for overnite, never would I want to work for ups without one.
 
I respect what your saying and appreciate it, however as I remember it there were numerous facilities that had voted IN the Union PRIOR to the UPS buyout. We could argue the percentage of facilities vs. the total number of facilities in the system but the bottomline is that there was representation before the UPS buyout and the ball was rolling to a degree far beyond when Overnite was strictly Overnite without any outside management influence or control , i.e whatever happened to Boswell ? This issue was started by the ownership by Union Pacific and the decisions that that management made. As I recall , as you do, the TOTAL system was unionized after UPS took control. Am I correct ? While we could split hairs , again , the bottomline is where are you now ? Obviously , by your post name, you hold a fond regard for OVERNITE and you disclaim the corolation of the two organizations. I do not know UPS but I expect that they are no different than the majority of big businesses in today's marketplace and what I have heard so far solidifies that belief. Perhaps this discussion deserves to be in a different thread ?
 
Your right, when the union was trying to organize overnite the first time they did not pull any stops and both sides did whatever they could legal or not to achieve there goal, the union got 37 terminals to get a majority of cards signed, but the company would not "bargain in good faith" with the union in those terminals, eventually the union gave up and Pulled out of these terminals, all of those terminals went back to non union status, when we were bought by ups they made some press releases stating if the employees wanted to be union it was our decision and they would not interfere either way.

The central states pension fund was doing very badly inredline status or whatever it is called so ups made some type of deal topay a few billion and pull there emoyees out of that union controlled pension fund and place them into a ups controlled one, the union got a win win deal they got a few billion to Inject into a failing pension fund and that pension fund now has less people receiving benefits.

Once that was done the teamsters announced they "won" a cardcheck agreement with ups to organize us instead of using the election process, everyone wondered how was everything going in the unions favor, well once we saw our contract that was the last piece of the puzzle, they traded us for the pension fund.
 
when are you drivers going to get it? The company is going to close this place down if upsfreight does not get with the program. It is sink or swim and doesn't look to me much swimming is going on.
ups has spent enough more on this dog and this pig will not fly. Why pay union wages when the company can use contractors to do your work for less. We are done. The only thing that will say our arses is yellow shutting down and we get some of their freight. Might happen real soon. reality check time keep paying those dues for no action by the teamsters. They need to play golf and party with ups on your dime.
 
theoriginalwebidiot said:
when are you drivers going to get it? The company is going to close this place down if upsfreight does not get with the program. It is sink or swim and doesn't look to me much swimming is going on.
ups has spent enough more on this dog and this pig will not fly. Why pay union wages when the company can use contractors to do your work for less. We are done. The only thing that will say our arses is yellow shutting down and we get some of their freight. Might happen real soon. reality check time keep paying those dues for no action by the teamsters. They need to play golf and party with ups on your dime.
Click to expand...

The company is making plenty of money. They always cry poverty because the rest of the LTLs aren't making any.
 
where do you guys hear this bs, the company has now spent nearly as much as it paid for overnite and mc, trying to make it work and they are not going to be pumping much more into it.
look around at the junk your pulling and tell me how good they are doing. learn to read a financial statement it is all there for the world to see.
 
Overnite said:
Your right, when the union was trying to organize overnite the first time they did not pull any stops and both sides did whatever they could legal or not to achieve there goal, the union got 37 terminals to get a majority of cards signed, but the company would not "bargain in good faith" with the union in those terminals, eventually the union gave up and Pulled out of these terminals, all of those terminals went back to non union status, when we were bought by ups they made some press releases stating if the employees wanted to be union it was our decision and they would not interfere either way.

The central states pension fund was doing very badly inredline status or whatever it is called so ups made some type of deal topay a few billion and pull there emoyees out of that union controlled pension fund and place them into a ups controlled one, the union got a win win deal they got a few billion to Inject into a failing pension fund and that pension fund now has less people receiving benefits.

Once that was done the teamsters announced they "won" a cardcheck agreement with ups to organize us instead of using the election process, everyone wondered how was everything going in the unions favor, well once we saw our contract that was the last piece of the puzzle, they traded us for the pension fund.
Click to expand...

I just learned something- Thanks ! I stopped paying attention to the industry and I missed a lot. When the Union gave up the first time how long was Richmond shutdown because of the celebration on Semmes ave ? I can see all the backslaping and self congratulations. Must have been horrible for the employees.... It appears that there is debate on the profit picture. Some say they make money some say they don't. From what I can tell the UPS COMPANY is operating at about 95 O/R. How can you tell what freight runs at if the numbers are mixed together for all operations ? I will admit I know nothing about the contract. A few years back when the contract was being pieced together I was told that the wages would be the highest in the industry. Confirmed by a recent post. How did UPS think they were going to be able to afford it ? There are only two things you can control in trucking ( simplified I know ). One is wages and the other is price. Equipment costs could be argued but my response is " Your going to have to buy it ". You can defer it, you can fail to mantain it but all your doing is putting off the spending. Price is almost a joke because someone will always cut their rates. Idea being if you get enough business you almost have to make a profit. Not true , at least to me. We hauled alot of cheap freight years ago and all it did was make a salesmans numbers look good while it cost the company more to handle it than it was priced at. Wages , ah , the real sensitive side of it. I TAKE NOTHING AWAY from the man working the shift or driving the truck. It is not gravy and I know it - but how did UPS think they were going to pay the best in the industry when Overnite always had a cost break on labor ? Did they think they could make it all up on being super efficent and the Onite system was so far inefficent that it was a no brainer ! A company can pay twice what you guys make ( only a example ) IF a employee can do twice the tonnage movement on the dock or twice the pickups and deliveries. At some point all you can do is all you can do and a slide rule runs out of numbers it can juggle. Sorry, this sounds like I'm preaching. Just trying to understand the culture. Thanks
 
if someone is having a problem, talk to your steward and file a grievance if the problem is not solved. Remember, the company ouldn't hesitate to right you up if they aren't happy. Stand up for whats right ,simple and true.
 
theoriginalwebidiot said:
when are you drivers going to get it? The company is going to close this place down if upsfreight does not get with the program. It is sink or swim and doesn't look to me much swimming is going on.
ups has spent enough more on this dog and this pig will not fly. Why pay union wages when the company can use contractors to do your work for less. We are done. The only thing that will say our arses is yellow shutting down and we get some of their freight. Might happen real soon. reality check time keep paying those dues for no action by the teamsters. They need to play golf and party with ups on your dime.
Click to expand...

UPS will never get out of the freight business unless FedEx does the same and that's just not happening. UPS has wanted to get into the freight business for the last 15 years......Why????.....To be able to compete with its largest rival FedEx. Please find me an other major freight carrier that does not use private contractors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top